Using stent grafts to treat aneurysms is common in the medical field. Stent grafts are deployed by accessing a vasculature with a small incision in the skin and guiding a delivery system to the target area. This intraluminal delivery is less invasive and generally preferred over more intrusive forms of surgery. Multiple stent grafts may be implanted using intraluminal delivery to provide a system of interconnected stent grafts. Interconnected stent grafts can include fenestrated stent grafts and smaller side branch grafts, including bifurcated components.
Sometimes aneurysms engulf a vessel and its branch vessels, such as the aorta and the renal arteries or the aortic arch and the branch arteries. In such instances, a fenestrated graft can be implanted in the main vessel while smaller branch grafts can be deployed in the branch arteries. The main vessel graft may have fenestrations that correspond with the openings of the branch vessels. The smaller branch grafts are joined with the main vessel graft at the fenestrations. This juncture can be subject to significant stress caused by movement of the endovascular system.
Moreover, when a condition such as an aneurysm has engulfed a main vessel and multiple branch vessels, it may be difficult and relatively time consuming to align the fenestrations of the main graft with the branch vessels to deliver the smaller branch grafts needed in addition to the main graft. For example, when multiple smaller branch grafts must be deployed to cannulate multiple corresponding branch vessels, insertion of the required wire guides and delivery devices may be difficult and time consuming.